Every country in the world has legislation that most of the companies are required to abide by. The question to whether people on welfare require to submit a drug test is considered divisive and emotionally charged. It is evident that laws on drug testing among welfare recipients are becoming popular and statistics show that as of May 2016, there has been legislation put in place among 17 states who were in the process of conducting tests on their people.

So, why the need for welfare people to submit to drug testing? Is there a need for testing them?

These are some of the questions that have sparked ongoing debate among people. many of the arguments argued have their own advantages and disadvantages as some believe that it is an unconstitutional endeavor whereas those proposing believe that it is a good way to assure those that are to receive benefits. There are many stereotypes that affect people and those not in favor believe that it is unconstitutional thus violates the Fourth Amendment of the constitution. Some believe that it is set to discriminate the poor who they believe since they arrive from a low socio-economic demographic then they must be people hooked into drugs.

Proposers believe that the law is intended to provide the tax payer’s tax is not used inappropriately and thus tax collected is spent on people who critically require it and are not going to abuse the funds. There exists a prudent use of taxpayer’s money since it is widely known that only a few people have their tax money and that having most of the welfare undertake drug test will help make sure that most of the money received is used for food, housing and other critical necessities rather than abusing cash.

Drug testing helps in identifying members on the program who need substance abuse treatment and require some of the funds to go and satisfy their need. It is without a clear doubt that constant use of drugs is a problem which affects many of the welfare members and thus conducting a drug test helps the community to identify some of the people that require treatment and receive much of the needed help accordingly.

Some of the members of the legislature argue that drug testing is only required when one is getting employed and thus they see no harm if the same is implemented too since it is already precedent in the current job market. Encouraging welfare members to have a drug test will inspire most of the individuals receiving help to search for work in their own free time which helps them escape most of the paperwork thus discouraging the members to only seeing welfare as the only means to survival.

Although there exist some of the advantages of encouraging the submission of drug tests, there also exists some cons to implementation of the same which are that it will contribute to the poor use of a taxpayers money since constant testing and prescribing of dollars will cost more hence savings obtained outweigh the costs thus makes more sense to stop testing members.

The National Conference of State Legislatures argues that compulsory drug tests violate the constitution. Some of the states e.g. Florida had the law struck down by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal due after finding that it violated an individual’s constitutional right. Health and human departmental services also argue that testing of individuals will deny aid received by the children since denying members who test positive the welfare will have a detrimental effect to their children who will bear the full force to this.

Constant debates continue with some arguing if the job society requires them to be subjected to various scrutiny, then why is that many of the welfare community members are against it? If the public goes through the same scrutiny, then why should they not go through the same? Some of these questions are difficult to answer leaving it up to you, is it right for welfare members to have a drug test? Share your opinions.